How do computers learn and how can we teach Artificial Intelligence to elementary school children?

What is it about?

The paper discusses a course concept to teach elementary school children how Artificial Intelligence works. The course combines ideas on how computers can learn through programming and how computers can learn through machine learning. The elementary school children are encouraged to try out individual programming tasks in Scartch and train their own AI models with machine learning for kids. They learn that machine learning can introduce errors and bias and discuss the implications for humans.

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Photo by Compare Fibre on Unsplash

Photo by Compare Fibre on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Artificial intelligence is everywhere in the daily lives of adults and schoolchildren. Understanding how Artificial intelligence works is complex and very technical. We can, however, comprehend how AI learns from many images to distinguish two different types of animals, like chickens and hawks. This example suits the understanding of how bias can enter artificial intelligence and how it may cause errors in AI. Understanding the basic concepts of AI is important to using AI services responsibly and critically assessing its limits.